Oct 15 07 entry
October
14, 07
Arrived
in Bangkok at pass 12 in the
morning. Was euphoric when I saw the money exchange counter open. I thought I
would be waiting til daylight before I could go to Chulalongkorn as I didn’t
have a single baht with me and I was told that exchanges did not operate round
the clock.
Had
my first encounter with Thai’s bad breed a few minutes after setting foot in
the airport. Had to crawl through layers of people belligerently offering their
transportation services just before the airport’s exit. Prices ranged from 500
to 1500 baht—definitely way more than the ceiling price stated in the
information kit sent to me by the course organizers which was 400 baht. There
was one guy who agreed to take me for that price but I politely declined.
Suffice it to say that the guy didn’t smell right, literally and figuratively.
Got
one of the metered taxi cabs lining up in front of the airport. Felt safe and
comfortable when I was pointed to the guy who would drive me to my destination:
he was an old guy with an innocuous smile. He didn’t smell at all too.
The
trip was long, and was made longer because my driver went in circles looking
for the Vidhayanives Guest House. I showed him the map I brought with me which
had instructions on how to get to the place in Thai but to no avail. It was
already pass two when I finally got to the guest house.
Vidhayanives
was modest but pretty neat for a university residence hall. We were booked in
single rooms and I thought, perfect. I have my own airconditioner, TV, sink,
refrigerator and bathroom. Perfect. The room was kind of spacious
too—even bigger than the standard double-bed Kabayan hotel rooms. Perfect.
I can really get use to this kind of living.
I
took a quick shower and hurriedly dozed off. Never mind if I had not eaten
dinner the day before and my stomach was cringing with hunger: I was harassed, dead
beat and sleepy.
***
Woke
up at around 8:30 am. I wanted to get
accustomed to my immediate surroundings so I got up quickly and set out for a
walk. Little did I know that this day is when I go on a shopping spree.
Sunday
is a national holiday for the Thais so many offices were closed. I asked
different people if there was anything I could do, any place I could go to even
if it was on a Sunday. All of them just pointed me to the closest mall: the
MBK. But it opens at 10 am
I was told
and I was absolutely famished (remember, I had not put anything in my stomach
for the last 17 hours). So I went around in search of a small eatery or
restaurant to grab a bite. Saw one at the “Sports Center” (I supposed it was a
sports center since it looked like a dome and at its vicinity where various
sports shops, including a food bar with chairs shaped like soccer balls) and
had a quick fix of fried rice with chicken. For 25 baht, it was well worth it.
I’m pretty sure I would be coming back there in the next days.
I
then went to MBK. A guy told me it was still close and asked me if I was
interested to go to Thai Center first to check out the jewelries and souvenirs there for sale. He said it was
owned by the Thai government and was selling items cheap. The guy seemed like a
nice fellow to me and I had nowhere else to go so I obliged. For a moment there
I thought I had finally met a nice Thai; but then the guy directed me to one of
the taxi cabs waiting at the corner and told me the driver would take me to
Thai center and back all for 30 baht. He said that was too good a deal as the
whole trip would normally cost 200 baht. Of course any sane person would sense something
fishy but 30 baht is almost just the flag down price for taxi cabs in the Philippines
and so I went along with the whole sham.
Thus
far, my impression of Thais hasn’t been good at all. For one, they have not
been very hospitable. Filipinos are way way more welcoming and friendly. I
would even say Singaporeans are more hospitable than Thais—even if I had a fair
share of unpleasant encounters with not a few Singaporeans in my brief stay
there some months ago. But heck, who am I to judge? I have only been here less
than a day; maybe I just haven’t met the nice ones yet.
On
the way to the Thai center, the driver showed me a card: it says that for every
purchase made in the shop, the card owner gets five liters of gasoline for
free. Now it made sense to me why he wanted to take me to the Thai center even
for a minimal fee. We got to the Thai center in a flash as it was just a few
blocks away (proving that what the previous guy told me was indeed a sham—200
baht my butt).
Nothing
special in the center, as far as my bias is concerned. The people though were a
lot friendlier. I even broke one of the items on display but the attendant at
the counter didn’t charge me for it (that was a 100 baht saved, hallelujah).
A
small jewelry workshop heralds the shop itself. I caught some of the men
working there and they were all busy doing their thing. In the shop that
follows, a huge collection of elegant and expensive jewelries—from rings, to earrings,
to pendants etc.—were put on show for everybody else’s amusement (and my boredom:
not really into jewelries; I’d go with beads and simple indigenous materials
anytime).
I
then proceeded to the souvenir shop. Nothing really caught my eye but I bought
some items there to give away to friends. Bought me a bag too and a neat-looking
notebook with two guys doing muay thai at the cover. Nice.
After
some small shopping there (spent a thousand baht there), we made a quick stop
to a dress shop called Brioni. Nothing there to see and I was completely bored
to death. I just did the cab driver a favor as he told me to stay there for
five minutes—even if I didn’t buy anything—so he can get a coupon entitling him
to free 5 liters of gasoline (takteng garapal talaga). He then took me
back to MBK. Good thing I had exactly 30 baht with me as he didn’t have any
change (raw!) when I gave him a higher bill.
MBK
was jam-packed when I got there. Lots of shops inside, mostly selling clothes,
accessories and food. It actually looks like our own Greenhills Shopping Center
as it has shops selling cheap jewelries, pirated softwares, films and music
(minus the dibidi guys). It has its own food court where traditional
Thai dishes were offered. Got myself a simple meal there for lunch: rice and
chicken with slices of cucumber. I guess cucumber is a standard side dish in a
Thai meal as my breakfast also had cucumber all over it. I also went to the
supermarket to buy myself some supplies.
As
I’m an absolute film buff, I checked out the video stores in search of good
Thai films. To my surprise and disappointment, there were very few Thai movies
for sale in all the stores I visited—most were Hollywood and Asian films, in particular, Korean and Japanese movies. I didn’t even see
Monrak Transistor and Jandara—two films known in the international scene; both
were also shown in Cinemanila. I did find a film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul:
Mysterious Object at Noon but the
copy was a US
release. It seems that while a number of Thai films have made it big in the art
film arena, they aren’t exactly appreciated in their own country of origin. The
ones I saw at the stores were mostly mainstream titles and new releases.
Nevertheless, I ended up buying eight titles—what can I say, a film buff is a
film buff. 
Got
back to Vidhayanives at around 3pm and came across with two fellows from Kenya who will be taking the course with me for the next three weeks. We made small
talk before we all went up to our rooms.
8:30 pm
